MTN Panorama 2011 Stage 1

On the morning of the 28th of April we drove up north to the little town of White River for MTN Panorama Tour which took place from 29 April to the 2nd of May. The Panorama tour is a two man team event and we entered into the Sub-Vets category as three teams. The teams were Irish Mielies (Bryan Cusack and Emile Fouche), Boksburg by the Sea (Andrew Reeves and Mike Viljoen) and Mr Price (Sean Merredew and Werner Venter). During the drive up I received some concerning news via sms from my partner, Bryan, that he had some bug. But it did not bother me too much (Little did I know). We registered at Casterbridge and then went home to get some rest for the next day’s race.
When I got a wake-up call from Bryan at 5h00 on the Friday morning, I did not receive good news at all. Bryan was still as sick as an anorexic old dog and had to withdraw from the tour. After having a chat with Oom Hendrik Wagenaar, I was told I can ride, but would not be in contention for any prizes or official results. So a solo tour for me it was.


The route description for Stage One is White River – Kiepersol – Sabie – White River, over a distance of 115km and 2213m of climbing. Andrew, Mike and I were seeded in the A group and Werner and Sean just behind us in B. The neutral car led us from Casterbridge through a 3km neutral zone at 30km/h, on an uphill climb. If you did not manage to be near the front there you would have been in trouble already. Mike, Andrew and I were in the mix but Werner and Sean were missing. Only later we would find out Sean had some bad luck with a mechanical. The MTN Hotspot for Open Men, Women and mixed categories was at the 25km mark at the Da Gama Dam Climb. I managed it over the hill and Andrew and Mike were in a chase group which caught up to the front bunch just before Jacques Fullard and Jacques-Louis van Wyk launched an attack. In the excitement of the Blue Mountain Lodge climb I lost Mike and Andrew and ended up in a chase group which caught the main group somewhere on the Hazyview/Sabie road. From here it was pretty much a cruise to the gradual 15km Spitskop climb where I almost got dropped near the top but managed to ride myself back to the group. As we approached White River we were directed through the back roads of town to Casterbridge. I was sitting near the back of the group chatting to my coach (and Panorama partner in 2010), Werner Moolman when suddenly, around a corner, our bikes touched and I bought a plot of White River tar, about 1.5km from the finish. Could this day get any worse? (As I sit here, typing this, I’m still grinding my teeth from the agony of the roasties!)


After losing some time and getting helped onto my bike by the officials I went solo over the finish line finishing 14th on the GC overall and a would be 3rd for Sub-vets. But all that for an apple as my result didn’t count.


At the end of stage 1 Boksburg by the Sea was in 6th place and Mr Price in 14th in the Sub Veteran Category.


Overall and bad luck excluded it was a good day out on the bike and an Awesome ride.






Emile Fouche.